Working at a Joyous Creative Thing: Weaving, Making, and Material Culture in Letty Esherick’s Legacy
September 18, 2025 – December 28, 2025
Unlike most Wharton Esherick Museum Artists-in-Residence, Kelly Cobb has focused her research not on Wharton himself but on Leticia (Letty) Nofer Esherick, the dynamic artist, dancer, educator, and creative powerhouse whom Wharton married in 1912. While Wharton’s career was shaped in large part by Letty’s support – financial, intellectual, emotional, and otherwise – her own creative legacy has too often been overlooked. The letter excerpted above, written after her separation from Wharton and the raising of their children, reflects Letty’s intense desire for artistic recognition, creative opportunity, and economic independence.
Working at a Joyous Creative Thing showcases original textiles by Letty Esherick discovered by WEM staff in 2022. They include garments, weaving samples, and works-in-progress, and likely date from the 1940s through her death in 1975. Cobb is among the first scholars to study these textiles. She combines material-based research with WEM’s extensive paper and photographic archives related to Letty, as well as fieldwork at sites like Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, where Letty studied weaving in the late 1940s. Cobb’s research is supported in part by a College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Go Grant from the University of Delaware.
This installation will be on view in our Visitor Center, which is open during our current tour hours. Please note, guests wishing to enter the Studio must make advance reservations for a tour.
This installation marks the first public presentation of Letty’s textiles in at least five decades. They are shown alongside new works by Cobb, as well as artworks across disciplines by a group of skilled collaborators that range from handmade garments to sound art to embroidery. Together, they situate Letty’s practice within broader narratives of artistic ambition, gendered labor, and creative survival. The objects and ideas presented in Working at a Joyous Creative Thing represent the midpoint of Cobb’s residency. Her research continues, with further insights to be shared in programs at WEM this fall, as well as new creative materials to be presented in spring 2026.
About the Artist
Kelly Cobb is an Associate Professor of Fashion and Apparel Studies at The University of Delaware. Her research program examines the complexities inherent in apparel and textile supply chains through creative project-based work that seeks to reintegrate the wearer of clothes to local trades and economies, restoring integrity and kinship to the origins of materials and to the environmental resources and human labor involved in textile and apparel production.
About the Collaborators
In the spirit of community, and echoing Letty’s interests across a wide range of art forms, Cobb worked with a group of interdisciplinary artists whose creative practices resonate with Letty’s own. This installation includes works by Nicole Feller-Johnson, Sophia Gupman, Eliza Hardy Jones, Abby Lutz, Dana Meyer, and Joy O. Ude.
Eliza Hardy Jones (in collaboration with Letty Esherick), Honeysuckle Weave No. 24, 2025, sonicweaving.
Letty Esherick, Honeysuckle Rose Weaving Pattern Samples, circa 1940s
Letty Esherick, Registration/Billing Card for Penland School of Craft (facsimile), circa 1940s
Letty Esherick, Embroidered Tunic (unfinished), circa 1940s-1960s, embroidered fabric 
Left: Joy O. Ude (in collaboration with Letty Esherick and Kelly Cobb), Block Printed Ensemble, 2025, hand-printed fabric from hand-carved linoleum block
Right: Letty Esherick, Printed Top and Skirt Set, circa 1940s-1960s, printed fabricLeft: Sophia Gupman and Kelly Cobb, Vest, 2025, compound ikat woven fabric
Right: Letty Esherick, Vest, circa 1940s-1960s, woven fabric
Left: Letty Esherick, Halter Top and Pant Set, circa 1940s-1960s, handwoven and embroidered cotton
Right: Abby Lutz / Abilene (in collaboration with Letty Esherick, Kelly Cobb, and Family Heirloom Weavers), Garments, 2025, woven cotton coverlet
Kelly Cobb, Hedgerow mapping, 2025, supplemental weft, embroidery 
Sophia Gupman and Kelly Cobb, Letty’s Portfolio, 2025, Assembled items from the Wharton Esherick Museum Collection, digital composite print on linen 
Dana Meyer, Bloom, No Bloom, 2025, 100% cotton Aida cloth, 100% cotton embroidery floss 
Nicole Feller-Johnson, Embroidery, 2025, embroidered fabric
